That is half a million more than Governor Jay Nixon, a Democrat, raised in the third quarter alone and nearly half as much as Nixon has in his entire war chest ($4.2 million at the end of the third quarter). It's also more money than Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, the once presumed front-runner for the GOP nomination who recently announced he would not jump into the race, had on hand at the end of the third quarter.

Many expected that Spence, owner of Alpha Packaging, would help fund his own campaign. This self-donation is a shot of nitrous oxide to the engine. Just like that he is (at least superficially) competitive.

It'll take a lot of money to beat the popular incumbent, whose approval rating hovered above 60 at last measure (which was in the Spring, basically aeons ago by political time).

Spence also received a couple of big donations on Tuesday. William Koman, CEO and President of a development company called The Koman Group, gave him $100,000. And Daniel Creston, the Chief Operating Officer of Alpha Packaging, gave him $25,000.